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National Nutrition Month is here again! Last year I was impatiently waiting to deliver Cooper (and just find out that he was a boy) who has flipped my world upside down in the best ways possible. While my philosophies around nutrition haven’t changed in the past year, the way I feed myself and my family has. It’s a busy life as a working mom and convenience has become more important than ever in our household. I thought it would be helpful to many of you to share my top convenience foods for babies and toddlers based on my experiences with Cooper.

You hear me discuss intuitive eating, especially as it relates to sport, and if you follow me on Instagram, you now this is brought up on a regular basis. One of the 10 principles of Intuitive Eating (IE), is “Exercise – Feel the Difference.” What’s meant by this, in short, is to exercise for energy and wellness rather than for calorie burn and weight loss. By moving your body for those reasons, you’ll feel the difference in your motivation to move and you’re stress levels and overall health may improve, too. In this post, I’ll discuss more of my relationship with exercise, with tips along the way to find more joyful movement.

I’ve always been a big snacker, but since the little man arrived into our lives, more of my snacks have been coming out of packages than I’d like. While I’m still choosing nourishing foods that keep me satiated and energized, I’ve been missing that connection to food that is built through preparation. One of the easiest snacks to make that’s also filling and nourishing is roasted and flavored nuts. I first made these candied ginger pistachios in the fall and I’m excited to have them back in our snack rotation.

As I shared recently, I’m a big ingredient prepper over the weekends. If I just prepped full meals ahead, I’d be disappointed at some point during the week that the flavors just weren’t what I was craving, and as a result wouldn’t be satisfied. Plus, I think it’s more fun to enjoy the same ingredients with different flavors most of the time. This post is to show you how some simple ingredient prep translates into meals during the week.

The best part of Valentine’s Day is absolutely the treats. But, you don’t want to rely on someone else to get you what you want. Who wants to be disappointed that their favorite treat is X and they got Y instead? Advocate for yourself and make your fave dessert, whether that’s amazing cinnamon rolls made in under an hour, or anything else.

It’s okay if you indulged this weekend – and it’s also OK if you didn’t do any food prep for the week! Many people feel guilty, on top of feeling overwhelmed, when it comes to making food decisions during the week, but feeling guilt for not thinking ahead will never help your current situation. While I recommend prepping in whatever ways you can over the weekend, there’s a variety of reasons that sometimes it just might not be feasible. So, today I’m sharing a quick white bean chili that you can make with items you likely already have at home.

With the extreme chill covering a lot of the country right now, I thought everyone could benefit from some new soup recipes to prep this weekend and enjoy all week long! Last night both myself and Tim were craving soup, but after a long day and with a high maintenance baby, making it just wasn’t happening. We spent an embarrassing amount of money on some delicious soup from a local restaurant, and while it was delicious, it made me vow to get my soup and stew stock back up!

There’s these amazing chickpea flour banana bread muffins I made a few years ago. They’re now one of the most consistent posts I get traffic from via search engines, and they’ve been turned into amazing cupcakes and gingerbread muffins, too. Despite their deliciousness and nutrient density, I was still a bit uneasy about the added sugar if they’d be a regular part of Cooper’s diet, so I set out to adapt them to be added sugar free. Now I present to you, Mommy & Me banana muffins!

Often times people shy away from food prep because they assume that it means you’ll need to cook every component for every meal for the week and that it’ll eat up an entire day of your life. I’m here to tell you that’s NOT the case, and if it has been for you, then I encourage you to erase it from your memory and try again. As I’ve seen with past clients and people who’ve joined seminars or classes I’ve run, if you felt stressed, there’s a good chance you threw in the towel and said “I’m not cut out for this” and went back to no prep at all.

While I have eaten it in plenty of dishes while dining out (hello miso blistered shishito peppers at Sprig & Vine, I only cooked with miso for the first time this past fall. And I’ve done the same thing with it each time… make this sauce for tempeh! So, since I wanted to share this recipe with you regardless, this month’s Recipe Redux theme of cooking with a new ingredient was a perfect opportunity to get it on the blog.

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Kelly Jones MS, RD, CSSD

Hi, I'm Kelly, a Registered Dietitian and Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics in Greater Philly. I'm also a new mom, foodie, traveler, and fitness lover, using this blog to share recipes and tips to fueling your active lifestyle!